ANOTHER GUILT PLEA IN KANSAS ONLINE GAMBLING PROBE

The Kansas City Star reports that another suspect in the
Kansas City online sports betting probe being conducted
by a Grand Jury (see previous InfoPowa reports) has
pleaded guilty in a federal court.

William D.
Cammisano Jr. (60), who is alleged to be associated with
a local organised crime family, entered a guilty plea
this week, admitting that he had operated an illegal
online sports betting business between March 1, 2006,
and March 31, 2009.

Cammisano is alleged to have
collected about $1.14 million in wagers that bettors
placed through a toll-free telephone number or a web
site, both of which routed to a wire room in Costa Rica.

Cammisano was the fifth person to plead guilty in
recent weeks to roles in the gambling operation.

The Kansas City Star reports that in 1988, the FBI
identified Cammisano as a lieutenant in an organised
crime outfit. At the time, the bureau also identified
his father, known as “Willie the Rat,” as the city’s top
mob leader at the time.

In 1989, a federal jury
convicted Cammisano of obstruction of justice, and he
was sentenced to five years in prison. A judge later
reduced the sentence by two years after an appeals court
ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence
of his alleged organised crime activities to justify the
heavier sentence.

In September 1994, his federal
conviction prompted the Missouri Gaming Commission to
ban Cammisano from the state’s casinos. Fighting that
exclusion, Cammisano denied any connection to organised
crime and praised his father as “a great man.”

After hearing the guilty plea, a federal magistrate
released Cammisano on his own recognizance.